LETTERS FROM LOVE — With Special Guest Iyanla Vanzant!

Go there and roam

Dear Lovelets,

I want to share an anecdote with you all about something that happened a few weeks ago, when I was teaching my workshop at the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts. As many of you know, because I never stop talking about it, I’ve been sick since early August with a bronchial infection that doesn’t want to leave me. (How devoted you are to me, dear bronchial infection! So loyal, you are!)

I was still at the peak of my coughing and hacking when I arrived in the Berkshires in early September to teach — and that had me scared, because my throat was completely jacked, and my schedule consisted of three days of nonstop talking to hundreds of people.

Now, I normally love nonstop talking to hundreds of people. (Shout out to all my grammar school teachers who wrote on my report cards that I was a pretty good student, but that I was a constant disruption to the class because: “Elizabeth talks far too much” — lol, suckers! Joke’s on you, now it’s my literal VOCATION.)

But halfway through the day on Saturday (with one four-hour session of talking behind me, and another four-hour session of talking ahead of me) I sat in the green room, wracked by yet another coughing fit, and I started crying with exhaustion. I said aloud to the empty room, “I can’t do this.”

And then I heard Love say to me, very clearly, “Then you have no choice but to let ME do it.”

Well, that was very straightforward, wasn’t it?

So that’s what I did: I let Love do it.

I don’t remember much of the second half of the workshop on Saturday, but I do know that I just opened my mouth and let Love do the talking. And I know I said some stuff I’ve never said before in a workshop, because even as I was hearing myself talking, and marveling at the fact that I wasn’t coughing, I was thinking things like, “Wow, I had no intention of telling THAT story!” But something else was running the show, and thank God for it.

(Of course, I was also on a lot of cold medicine, so I could have just been hallucinating the entire afternoon. But honestly? I think Unconditional Love took charge, and I was just the hand-puppet.)

Our special guest this week is my beloved friend — the teacher and writer and powerful public speaker and divine minister of love Iyanla Vanzant. I am SO EXCITED that she said yes to this invitation!

I have learned so much from Iyanla over the years (pro tip: her book on forgiveness was a game-changer for me) but I was actually able to offer her something of value in return recently, when I taught her how to write herself letters from Love. She has since made it a daily practice, complete with a special notebook and an added coloring book practice that really lets the love sink in.

And here is what I found magical in her letter. Unconditional Love said to Iyanla that it wants her to dive even deeper into this letter-writing practice — to make this practice, and I quote, “intimate, frequent, and intentional.”

Intimate. Frequent. Intentional.

Such powerful words!

It reminds me of the old spiritual adage that the thing you are most desperately searching for is also searching for YOU.

In other words, Love loves you right back. And wants to get intimate with you. And why wouldn’t it?

Have a beautiful week, everyone — we sure do love you over here!

Dear Love, what would you have me know today about my heart?

Oh, precious one. When you ask me about your heart, you are asking about me, and you’re asking about you, and you are asking about us.

Your beautiful heart is actually OUR beautiful heart, child. We share it, and as such, it is infinite and timeless, just like me. Do you remember the lesson you learned at the ashram in India, what the great saint Nityananda said? “The heart is the hub of all sacred places. Go there and roam.”

And indeed you have roamed throughout your life, my love — far and wide, and more than most. But some of your roaming has taken you further AWAY from your heart, rather than deeper within it.

That thing you tried to do for so many decades — trying to meld with, or melt with another person, using the tricks and tools of sex and passion in order to generate an unbreakable union — only always ended up tearing you apart in some way, didn’t it?

It had nothing to do with the quality of the people whom you partnered with; many of them were beautiful beings. But it did always tear you up and leave you broken, didn’t it? Even the good endings took the life out of you, didn’t they?

Listen, precious — just because you always got torn apart at the end of these stories doesn’t mean they weren’t worth doing. Oh, brave voyager, every journey is worth doing. You, of all people, should know that.

But now your voyage has brought you HERE — to the cusp of absolute union with me. This, my love, is your sacred appointment. This is what you have been searching for.

For wasn’t it always the case that your efforts at melding, melting, and vanishing into someone else’s being always led you away from sacred love, rather than toward it? It was as if you were running away from the bottomless, crystal cool reservoir that true Unconditional Love can provide for you, in order to chase someone who was offering you a very small glass of water.

Compared to THIS love, my heart — our love, our great and infinite love — everything else is always going to be just a small glass of water. And why settle for that?

My child, no more chasing and no more settling. You know this from your addiction recovery. The rule of love for you is: no chasing. No chasing a feeling, no chasing a person, no chasing a fantasy. No chasing the past or the future.

And no more melting, melding, binding — and certainly no more disappearing into anything but me. Absolutely not. We need you to stay HERE, dear one, grounded and strongly planted on your own two feet, in the infinite present moment. Which is also where love can be found. In fact, the only place it can be found.

It's time for you to really roam the depths of the heart, my love — your own heart, that is. Our heart. Your reservoir, your source, your provider, your secure attachment, your soulmate, your home.

Don’t worry how anyone else is doing it, or what people expect from you. Don’t worry about the rules of culture and what they say. When have I ever told you to obey the rules of culture? Just keep leaning in toward your center, toward my voice, toward my direction. As I have told you an endless multitude of times: Listen to everyone politely, but follow only me.

I am all you need, Lizzy. I am all you have ever needed. And I am beating right at the center of you, loving you AS you — as this beautiful heart, this portal, ever open, to a universe that is generous and kind beyond your wildest imaginings.

Come inside now and roam.

Prompt

Our hearts — our alive and evolving, suffering and buoyant and resilient hearts — they literally do a lot of heavy lifting, both physically and emotionally. This week, let’s check in on them with this simple question: Dear Love, what would you have me know today about my heart? Or if you’d rather, you can of course stick with the classic prompt: Dear Love, what would you have me know today? It always seems to do the trick.

(Actually, event. One of these days, we will figure out how to take the S off that banner — though if you’d like to see all my upcoming events, feel free to go to this link!)

Last week, tickets opened up for my weekend creativity workshop in Mexico City from November 8-10. I visited beautiful Mexico City for the first time last November, and loved it so much that I wanted to return as soon as possible. And like the city itself, our host (Mari Carmen “Charms” Obrigón) is full of — yes — charm, energy, and warmth! It was a magical experience. More information and tickets HERE.